S. 4668 (119th): A bill to protect the name, image, and likeness rights of, and provide protections for, student athletes and to promote fair competition among intercollegiate athletics, and for other purposes.

The Protect College Sports Act of 2026 (S. 4668, 119th Congress) would set federal requirements for college athlete name, image, or likeness (NIL) agreements, including barring institutions, conferences, and athletic associations from restricting athletes from NIL deals, requiring athletes to report NIL compensation over $600, and requiring agent registration with a 5% cap on agent endorsement fees. It would allow one transfer without losing eligibility, bar football personnel from becoming head coach at another institution during the same season, prohibit compensation that circumvents the House settlement's revenue-sharing limit, make that limit permanent with annual inflation adjustments, and generally bar Division I conferences from reducing sponsored varsity or Olympic sports. Large institutions ($80 million or more in annual athletics revenue) would have to maintain grant-in-aid and roster opportunities at 2024-25 levels for non-revenue sports, with a financial hardship waiver and a nine-year sunset. It would also create a limited antitrust exemption for joint media-rights sales, conditioned on participation by at least 75% of Football Bowl Subdivision institutions.

Theological note: The bill touches several issues of stewardship and fair dealing: athletes' freedom to benefit from their own name and labor, honest contracting and disclosure, just compensation, and the protection of non-revenue sports and the opportunities they provide to students. It also raises questions of concentrated market power through the antitrust exemption and of institutional commitments to the broader good of students. These are matters for prudential judgment under general equity rather than direct moral verdicts on the bill's aims.

• Tier: no Tier 1 record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
• Lane: antitrust. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
• Lane: athlete_compensation. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
• Lane: civil_rights. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
• Lane: commerce. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
• Lane: family_policy. Category: children. Lane tag: command.
• Lane: labor. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
• Lane: sports_policy. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
• Tier 1 sign-off: no record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
• Stored polarity: mixed. Only tags the rules mark scoreable on a mixed bill are scored. A yea can draw a penalty or a credit according to the tag. A nay on a tag scored as good can draw a penalty.
• Roll 235: On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed S. 4668. Vote type: cloture.
• Roll 236: On the Motion to Proceed S. 4668. Vote type: cloture.
• Roll 243: On the Cloture Motion S. 4668. Vote type: cloture.
• Roll 250: On Passage of the Bill S. 4668. Vote type: final_passage.
• Polarity rationale: Reviewed enrichment (llm_import) polarity: The measure is primarily a commercial, labor, and governance policy dispute. It contains recognizable goods, such as athlete freedom to contract, disclosure requirements, and protection of non-revenue sports opportunities, alongside real concerns, such as caps on compensation, a limited antitrust exemption, and eligibility and transfer rules. It does not directly advance a named moral evil or directly restrain one, so mixed is the prudent classification.
• Theological note: The bill touches several issues of stewardship and fair dealing: athletes' freedom to benefit from their own name and labor, honest contracting and disclosure, just compensation, and the protection of non-revenue sports and the opportunities they provide to students. It also raises questions of concentrated market power through the antitrust exemption and of institutional commitments to the broader good of students. These are matters for prudential judgment under general equity rather than direct moral verdicts on the bill's aims.

Debt and war Cloture and Tier 1 Procedural votes Scoring mechanics